United
by cecilia.clare
Summary: Modern AU: All our favorite goofballs in high school together
1. first day

**This is my first multi chaptered story, and it's modern newsies. I do not own newsies or Tuck Everlasting. Also all the newsies are based of the ones in the live movie. **

**Davey**

David Jacobs or as others knew him as Davey was starting high school. He had just moved from upper Manhattan to lower Manhattan, which people told him wasn't a big move, but it sure felt like it. Today he was starting his exciting journey as a freshman at The World High. He waited patiently at the bus stop, he watched as the big yellow monster roared to a stop before climbing on. He watched the world rush by as the bus picked up speed. In no time he was at his new school. He got off the bus, he took a deep breath before opening the door to his new school. Kids zoomed through the hallways finding each other after the long summer. He walked down the halls trying to find his locker, suddenly he was almost run over by a girl zipping by in her wheelchair. A short boy with a redshirt chased after her.

"Sorry!" she yelled continuing to fly down the hallways. He finally found his locker, he opened it and grabbed his supplies for his first class. He closed his locker door to see a boy standing next to him, opening another locker. The boy had blond curly hair and bright blue eyes. He had a blue plaid shirt over a navy blue striped shirt. Davey looked down to see a pair of old white converse on his feet. He also had what looked like a sucker sticking out of his mouth. Davey then heard the bell ring, he frantically dashed off to class. His first class was art, which was definitely not something he was looking forward to. He pushed open the art door to see a boy dangling from the ceiling. He was covered from head to toe in paint, he had a rope tied around his waist which was holding him high in the air. He was focused on a mural of what looked like mountains in the sunrise. It's was beautiful. The boy swung around to see Davey standing in the doorway, he quickly lowered himself to the ground. He walked over to Davey,

"Hey, names Jack Kelley." He wiped his hands on his blue shirt before sticking it out for Davey to shake. Davey hesitantly shook Jack's hand.

"Hi, my name is David, but everyone calls me Davey."

"Nice to meet ya, Davey."

"So do you help teach art?" Jack looked over at him laughing,

"No, I'm just a bonafide enthusiast. Crutchie!" Davey turned around to see a perky kid in a yellow hoodie walk in. He had one crutch under his right arm, and only one earbud in.

"Jack! I see it didn't take you long to get back in here." Jack laughed,

"Well, I basically live here." The boy named Crutchie laughed before walking in all the way and taking a seat. Davey decided to stop blocking the doorway and he took a seat. The girl in the wheelchair flew into the classroom, her dirty blond hair in a messy ponytail.

"Blu! Glad to see you still zipping around as usual," exclaimed Crutchie.

"You didn't think paralysis for a few days is gonna keep me from moving, did ya?" she joked.

"Nah, you're faster than ever." she wheeled her way over by the kid named Crutchie. She looked up to see Davey who was seated at the other side of the room.

"Oh my gosh! It's you! I almost ran you over this morning, I'm really sorry about that." she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck.

"Hey! How about as a peace offering you come sit with us." Davey started to say that he was fine where he was, but she insisted. Davey picked up his notebook and walked over to their table. Soon the kid with the sucker who was next to his locker ran in.

"Somebody's ready for cross country tryouts," muttered Blu.

"It's nice to see you too." smirked the sucker boy and sat down next to Blu.

"Who's the new guy?" asked the sucker kid motioning to Davey.

"I'm David, but everyone calls me Davey."

"Davey, well my name is Ben, but everyone calls me Race." Race pulled his sucker out of his mouth. The kid in the perky yellow hoodie spoke up,

"I'm Andrew, but everyone calls me Crutchie for obvious reasons." he motioned to his crutch and laughed. A few more kids walked in one with round glasses, another short kid walked in, and then a tall kid, who looked like he had a growth spurt over the summer, but didn't quite know how to handle his new height. The three kids sat down at the table with everyone else.

"Why don't you guys introduce yourself, this is Davey." Crutchie motioned toward him.

"I'm Jordan but everyone calls me Specs." said the kid with the glasses.

"I'm Julian, but I like Smalls better." said the short kid.

"I'm Joshua James, but that's a mouthful so you can call me Jojo." smiled the tall kid. Davey watched as the tight-knit group of friends, joking around before the teacher came. Davey listened to the old teacher to explain too many things over and over. Soon class was over, the girl, Blu rolled up next to him as he was walking back to his locker.

"Hey, what class do you have next?"

"I think I have Biology next."

"Great! So do I, we can sit next to each other!"

"That would be nice." smiled Davey

"See ya next class!" yelled Blu as she zipped down the halls. Davey made it back to his locker where he grabbed his stuff. Race was already rifling through piles of papers spilling out of his locker.

"Do you need help?"

"Nah," muttered Race, "I don't think you'd be able to help even if you knew what I was looking for." Davey walked into the biology room. It was covered in murals and tight-packed rows of desks. There were old science fair projects on top of the old dusty shelves. There were strange jars filled with who knows what and microscopes. He took his seat behind a dark-haired boy, in a white and blue striped shirt. Soon Blu zipped into the room and positioned her wheelchair in such a way she could crawl into the seat.

"Blu!" exclaimed the dark haired boy.

"Romeo, see you haven't changed a bit."

"Never." joked the dark haired boy laughed.

"Who's the new friend Blu?"

"This is Davey." the boy she called Romeo turned around to face Davey.

"Hello Davey, I'm Nico but everyone calls me Romeo." Davey nodded, he was meeting a lot of new people today.

"I hear they are doing Romeo and Juliet in English." joked Blu.

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun." laughed Romeo. More kids wandered into the classroom, Davey whispered to Blu,

"Know anyone else."

"Nah, just mostly kids that are in the foster system, like I used to be." Davey looked over to Blu in surprise. Then class started before Davey could ask any more questions class started. He dragged through the day, meeting all kinds of new people through Blu. Soon it was time to go back home, as he was walking down a hall he saw a sign for the school musical. It had a big sign that said Tuck Everlasting. Blu rolled up next to him, she grabbed the pencil for the sign-up sheet and wrote her name down.

"Are you gonna do the show? I hear it's gonna be great." Davey looked confusedly at the sign-up sheet then down to Blu in her wheelchair. She noticed his questioning look, and laughed,

"I have hypokalemic periodic paralysis. I know that's a lot of fancy words, but it means I'll get weak muscles from time to time, I should be walking around in a couple days." The boy in the red shirt ran up behind Blu, he had really dark hair.

"Spot! How was the first day?"

"It was fine, mom's here now, so we gotta go."

"Hold on, this is Davey. Davey this is my older brother Sean."

"It's Spot, and come on Blu we gotta go."

"Race ya!" she yelled as she zipped down the hall. Spot chased after her, Davey smiled and then looked back to the sign-up sheet. He quickly scribbled down his name, before running out to the bus. He had made it through the first day of school. He came home to his little brother Ethan, or as Davey called him Les.

"Davey how was school!"  
"Actually it was really good, I made a friend." Les ran into the kitchen yelling,

"Did ya hear that mom! Davey actually made a friend!" Davey rolled his eyes before heading to his room to work on his homework. You wouldn't think he would have homework on the first day of school, not when you had Mr. Delancey and Mr. Delancey for both math and science. Davey went to sleep that night excited for school the next day. He arrived at The World High, he went to his locker. Blu rolled over to him,

"I saw you signed up for the play!" she said excitedly. Davey nodded,

"I used to do them when I was younger, thought I would try again."

"Well, then we have to go meet someone!"

"Now?"

"Yes now!" she grabbed his hand,

"Come on!" he quickly followed after a speedy Blu. Soon they were in the auditorium, she led him backstage to the costumes room. There was a boy with brown hair, and he had a white plaid shirt over a blue shirt. He was rifling through a pile of costumes. He found what he was looking for, and sat down at a sewing machine and started to work on fixing a hole.

"Buttons!"

"Hey Blu," he muttered focusing on the costume.

"I have someone for you to meet." The boy finally looked up from his sewing machine. He got up and walked over.

"So who's your new friend?"

"This is Davey." Davey gave a small wave.

"My name is Chaz, but you can call me Buttons. I work on the costumes for all the shows."

"Nice to meet you Buttons." Buttons looked over to Blu,

"So I assume you are going for the lead?"

"Oh yeah, I've been wanting to do this one for a while now!" Buttons smiled,

"Well, you better get to class the bell will be ringing soon."

"Thanks, Buttons!" The two of them went to class. Soon Davey found his History class, he sat down and then he saw the boy from yesterday. The one with the red shirt, who was always around Blu. Soon he saw a fiery red-haired boy walk in with Race and Jojo. Jojo spotted Davey and motioned for them to follow him. Jojo sat down next to Davey and so did Race and the other boy.

"Hey, Davey! How's it going?"

"Pretty good Jojo, I'm tired though."

"Welcome to being a teenager." joked Race.

"Oh yeah," said Jojo shaking his head,

"Albert this is Davey, we met him in art class the other day." Albert looked up, then snatched the sucker out of Race's mouth.

"Hey, gimme that!" yelled Race. The two boys started to chase each other until the teacher, Mr. Darcy came in.

"Boys!" both Race and Albert froze. Race snatched his sucker out of Albert's hand and popped it in his own mouth. Then the two boys sat down as Mr. Darcy began the lesson. Davey tapped Jojo's shoulder,

"Who's that?" Davey motioned to Spot.

"That's Spot Conlon, he's captain of the JV football team."

"Is there any reason that he is always around Blu?"

"That's her older brother." Davey nodded then went back to paying attention. Soon it was lunchtime, and he walked through the line before going to find Blu. She waved him down, and he came over and sat down. He was excited to start to form a friend group. Race, Jojo, Albert, Buttons, Romeo, Smalls, Specs, Crutchie, and Jack all sat down. Everyone laughed as Jack sat down,

"What? Have I got something on my face?" Everyone pointed toward the rainbow of colors in his hair.

"Try your hair" joked Crutchie. Jack ran his hands through his hair rubbing the paint in further,

"Thought I try something different." Everyone laughed before two twin boys came over, Davey looked up from his lunch they wore opposite colors from each other. One in blue the other in red. Davey nudged Blu,  
"Who are they?"

"Oh, that's Mike and Ike, identical twins. Glad you met them together instead of apart because that would have been confusing." Davey nodded in agreement. Everyone continued to joke around until the bell rang, sending everyone running to their next classes. Blu rolled up next to Davey in the hallway, as he walked to English class.

"Does Romeo have English with us?" Blu nodded seeming a little more quiet than usual.

"Are you ok Blu?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired. Lots of meds for my legs, trying to heal. I'm just wiped. I should be up walking by Thursday."

"So I was thinking, I haven't done a whole ton of auditioning lately. I could sure use some help?" Blu perked up,

"Of course I can help you, I can skype you later today so we can practice."

"I would like that." The two of them walked or in Blu's case rolled into the English classroom where they saw their teacher. The two of them sat down and were quickly joined by Romeo.

"I heard our teacher was Mr. Hearst, I thought he was principal over at Journal High."

"No, it's his son," said Blu.

"Oh, it would have been bigger gossip if it was really Mr. Hearst." Blu laughed at Romeo. The three of them continued to chat until class started. One kid came in late as Mr. Hearst was beginning to explain the lesson. He had disheveled look about him. His messy brown hair stuck out from underneath his beanie, his shirt which read, _Hold on, I'm changing the world, _his blue jacket flopped off his shoulder.

"Mr. Masson, I guess your reputation holds up from eighth grade."

"Wouldn't change me even for you Mr. Hearst." laughter rippled through the classroom as the boy took his seat next to Romeo.

"Hey, Mush see you haven't changed a bit," whispered Romeo smiling,

"Never!" Mush whispered. Davey sat listening to Mr. Hearst explaining Romeo and Juliet, waiting for the end of school to come. Soon he made it through his last class and headed home. He stopped in the office and grabbed his audition prep material. He rode the bus home excited to start practicing with Blu. He got home and headed up to his room after ruffling his little brother's hair. He closed the door to his room and plopped on his bed. He pulled out the sheet music for Tuck Everlasting. He saw that the song for boys was "Top of the World". He looked at different lines, and then he pulled up the song on youtube. He listened to the song a few times and then started to practice. Halfway through the song, he saw he was getting a skype call from Blu. He answered it to see her smiling face,

"Hey, Davey! Have you looked at the music yet?" He nodded and held up his sheet music,

"I was just practicing a minute ago."

"Have you decided what part you want yet?"

"I thought I could just be in the background." Blu frowned at him,

"I think you would make the perfect Jesse Tuck!"

"A lead? I don't think so, I'm more comfortable in the background."

"Oh come on Davey! You would be great!"

"You haven't even heard me sing yet."

"Well let's fix that problem, and a five, six, seven, eight!"

"Wait, wait, wait. How about I hear you sing first then I can know what sounds good." he sheepishly smiled.

"Oh alright," Blu's face disappeared from the screen, as he heard the sound of paper crinkling. Suddenly he heard Blu's voice yell from off-screen,

"SPOT! I can't find my music, I think it's on the table." he heard more yelling,

"Yeah, it's right here!"

"Well can ya be a pal and bring it to me!"

"Fine!" Blu's face popped back on screen,

"Sorry about that." he heard a door open and Spot's hand appear on screen giving Blu her music.

"Thanks, Spot."

"Your welcome, but once you've been given the clear to walk again, you're getting your own music."

"Only a few days away!" she grinned, she rifled through her papers and found her music.

"Alright here goes," she breathed in before starting to sing the song "Good Girl Winnie Foster" he hung on every note. He watched as Blu morphed into Winnie Foster. As she finished, she saw the awed look on his face and smiled.

"Alright your turn," Davey nervously looked down at his music. He took a breath before starting to sing. He hit the notes and felt his voice move with the words. He felt his heart swell a little more with every note. He sang the last note and looked up to see Blu, smiling.

"Wow Davey, just wow. You definitely have a shot at a lead role."

"Blu!" yelled a voice from off-screen.

"What mom?" shouted Blu.

"We have to go to your doctor's appointment."

"Ok!" Blu started to shove papers into her backpack.

"Well, Davey I gotta go, cross your fingers." Davey put up his hands crossing his fingers. She laughed,

"I'll see you later Davey."

"Bye, Blu." she ended the call. Davey flopped back on his bed, happy to have friends. His phone buzzed in his backpack, he pulled it out to see a text from Romeo. _Hey Davey, do you get our English homework, I may be Romeo, but I'm not that wordy._ Davey laughed and pulled out his English book, and got to work. Soon it was dinner where he ate with his family and then went straight back to bed. He woke up in the morning to a text from Blu. _Hurry to school I have a surprise. _Davey texted back, _I'll try but that's all up to the bus. _He pulled on his favorite blue shirt that had the phrase _Seize the Day. _He ate breakfast and then ran to the bus stop. Soon he was at school, he pushed open the doors to see Blu standing in front of him on her feet. She now had forearm crutches, she had the goofiest smile on her face.

"Hey Davey, notice anything different." she smiled,

"Hmm, did you get a haircut?" she rolled her eyes,

"Wow, smooth Davey." he smiled the two of them walked to his locker before Blu had to leave for her locker. Race dashed into his locker, goofy smile on his face.

"What's got that smile about?" Race pulled his sucker out of his mouth,

"Cross country tryouts are today!" Race popped the sucker back in his mouth before opening his locker and pulling out his art supplies.

"I'll see you in a bit." Davey nodded, before opening his own locker pulling out his books. He walked to the art class to find Jack hanging from the ceiling again.

"What are you painting?" Jack turned around,

"Santa Fe."

"Why are you painting Santa Fe?"

"It's where I want to go to college." Davey nodded and then sat down.

"Davey!" he turned around to see Crutchie walking in the door. He had a yellow jacket hanging out of his backpack. Davey waved to Crutchie before he sat down across from Davey. Blu came into the room, Race behind her carrying her books. She sat down next to Crutchie, and Race set her books in front of her.

"Thanks, Race."

"No problem, just glad your back on your feet." Blu beamed, as the teacher came back in. He handed out everyone's art project, it was valued drawings. Davey thought they were boring, but Jack insisted that they were important. It didn't matter how boring value drawings were, he had his friends to keep him from boredom. Soon the bell rang and they dashed out the classroom. The week went on, and nothing changed. The first week of school survived.


	2. brotherly love

**Blu**

Blu's older brother pushed her into her new high school. After she got inside, she put her hands on the wheels signaling for him to let go.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find Crutchie, ok?" he nodded,

"Spot calm down, I know that my episode was only a day ago, but the doctor cleared me for school. To prove it, race ya!" she yelled and zipped down the hall. Suddenly a boy almost stepped in front of her wheelchair, she almost flattened him.

"Sorry!" she yelled as she continued racing down the hall. She finally spotted Crutchie.

"Crutchie!" she yelled in excitement. He turned around to hear his friends voice. She screeched to a halt in front of him.

"I see you haven't lost your touch." he smiled.

"Never, not even paralysis will stop me from whooping Race's butt in a race. Speak of the devil." Race ran up behind Blu, pulling his sucker out of his mouth.

"You think you could beat me in a race?"

"I don't think I could beat you… I think I would pummel you." Race got a sarcastic surprised face.

"Well, someone still hasn't found their manners."

"No, I found them. They are just on vacation." Blu smiled,

"What class do you guys have first?"

"Art." said both in unison. All three laughed,

"Me too." Crutchie looked down at his phone.

"Jack wants me in the art room. He's been basically living there, he's struggling with his new foster family."

"I'll see you guys in a few minutes, I'm gonna go find Buttons."

"Well I have to go find my locker." muttered Race popping his sucker back in his mouth. Blu rolled off to the auditorium, she rolled into the costume room to see Buttons rifling through a pile of papers.

"Buttons, see you haven't left." His head popped up from his pile of papers.

"Yeah, Medda gave me the new script for the new show. I have to start working on costumes. Did you have another episode?" he looked back down to his papers.

"Yeah, I went swimming the other day, guess I pushed it a bit. What are we doing for the spring show?"

"Medda told me not to say anything."

"Not even to me." Blu fake pouted, Buttons looked up from his papers.

"I hate it when you make that face." Blu pouted even more dramatically, Buttons rolled his eyes smiling,

"Fine, we are doing Tuck Everlasting." Blu's face lit up,

"Really!" she yelled.

"Whoa, don't let the whole school know." he joked. The bell rang, Buttons pulled his books out from underneath a pile of costumes. Blu rolled out of auditorium trying to get to art class. She zipped in to see Jack hanging from the ceiling.

"Blu!" exclaimed Crutchie. She rolled in next to Crutchie,

"I see that even though I'm late I still beat Race."

"We are gonna need to come up with another name for him." joked Crutchie. Blu looked up to see the boy from earlier in the hallway.

"Oh my gosh! It's you!" she exclaimed "I almost ran you over this morning, I'm really sorry about that." she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck feeling her face turn beet red.

"Hey! How about as a peace offering you can come sit with us." she watched as he began to protest,

"Oh come on! You don't want to sit by yourself the whole class." he reluctantly picked up his notebook and moved into the seat across from me. She could tell he was really shy.

"So what's your name?" the boy looked up from the table,

"I'm David, but everybody calls me Davey."

Race dashed into the room popping his sucker back in his mouth.

"Someone's ready for Track tryouts," she muttered

"Nice to see you too." smirked Race, he slid into the seat next to her,

"Who's your new friend?" asked Race motioning to Davey,

"This is Davey."

"I'm Ben, everyone calls me Race though." Soon Specs, Jojo, and Smalls wandered in. Soon all introductions had been made, and class started. She bordly came in and out of awareness listening to her old teacher drone on. Soon the bell rang, everyone jumped out of their sleepy daze and dashed for the door. Blu rolled up next to Davey,

"What class do you have next?"

"I have Biology."

"Me too! We could sit by each other!" he smiled,

"I'd like that."

A few days passed, she had just finished her skype with Davey when her mom told her it was time to go. She and her older brother Spot had been adopted by the Conlon family. They had been in the foster system for a few years before finally getting adopted. Blu grabbed her backpack and stuffed her laptop inside it. She placed it in her lap and rolled herself down the hall. She took the wheelchair friendly path downstairs. She rolled herself out to the car. Spot picked her up out of her wheelchair and placed her in the car. She saw her brother trying to hide the worried look on his face. He climbed into the car sitting in the seat next to her. She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze,

"I'm going to be ok, soon we'll be running down the halls like always." Spot gave a weak smile and squeezed her hand back. The car pulled out of the driveway and started the drive to the doctor's office. Blu felt nervous, but she tried not to show it because Spot was already nervous enough. The car pulled into the doctor's office and Spot hopped out of the car and took her wheelchair out of the back. Spot wheeled it around next to the side of the car and picked Blu up and put her in her wheelchair. The three of them came into the office, Spot and Blu watched as their mom checked them in. They walked into the elevator and rode up to the second floor. Soon she was called for her appointment, she took a deep breath. Spot and her mom followed after Blu as she followed the nurse. As soon as they made it into the examination room, Spot lifted her out of her wheelchair and set her down on the table. The nurse came in, she tested Blu blood pressure, temperature, looked at her ears and eyes. The nurse typed some stuff into the computer, then asked her mom a few questions. Soon the nurse left the room, and Blu was able to breath out. Spot grabbed her hand and gave her a small smile. She whispered,

"Is it ok that I'm nervous?"

"Of course it is. I'm probably more nervous than you. I'm sure when the doctor comes in, he'll give you some tests. Then medicine, and you'll be on your feet in no time."

"Can't believe I'm gonna say this but, I can't wait to be getting my own music off the table." The doctor opened the door,

"Blu, so it looks like you had an episode again." Blu looked over at Spot, he rolled his eyes and she laughed. The doctor tested her reflexes, then she had to go to get medicine through an IV which she hated. Spot put her back in her wheelchair and she wheeled herself into the room where she would get her medicine. She got the medicine, which made her really tired. Blu sat groggily in her wheelchair as the doctor droned on about different things about her disease. Soon Spot was rolling her out to the car, she fell asleep in the three-minute ride home. Later she woke up in her bed to the creaking door, to see Spot coming in. She sat up in bed,

"Hey." she saw a plate in his hands,

"Did you bring me food? Please let it be a grilled cheese." Spot walked over to the bed and set a plate down in front of her.

"Just like you like it!"

"Yes!" Blu excitedly dug into her dinner.

"Scoot over." Blu shifted over to the right side of the bed and Spot jumped in next to her.

"Want some?" Blu offered the other half of her sandwich to her older brother. He took it out of her hands and started to eat it,

"Hey Spot, I get kinda nervous sometimes that I won't be able to walk."

"But, you know you will be able to though right."

"Yeah I guess, fill me in on what the doctor said. I was too sleepy from the medicine."

"He told mom that you would be able to be able to walk with forearm crutches tomorrow." Blu pumped her fist in excitement,

"I can't wait to tell Davey!" Spot gave her a questioning look,

"Oh Davey is that kid I was on skype with earlier, he's new at school. I met him in art class the other day."

"Is he nice?" Blu looked over at Spot,

"Spot, I can make my own decisions on my friends."

"Fine," he said rolling his eyes dramatically, Blu rested her head on Spot's shoulder,

"Thanks, Spot."

"For what?"

"For being a good big brother."

"No problem." Blu yawned and closed her eyes falling asleep again.

She woke up in the morning to the annoying alarm clock. She climbed out of her bed and crawled into her wheelchair. She limped out of the bathroom struggling to get used to the forearm crutches. Slowly but surely she made it down the stairs, to the table. Soon it was time to leave, as she was making her way to the car she stumbled a little bit.

"Ugh! I hate these stupid things!"

"Ok then, I'll go get the wheelchair," said Spot sarcastically.

"No, I don't want my wheelchair."

"I thought you hated those stupid things."

"You know what I mean, they are just clunky." Blu got into the car with a little help from Spot. Soon she was at school, she saw Davey coming. She got a really big smile on her face. The week continued, as usual, Davey and her got to be better friends. She knew soon she would be walking on her own feet again.


	3. Practice, practice, practice

**Davey**

Davey had now gotten used to school, except auditions were now only a few days away. Davey had been practicing non-stop with Blu. He came to his locker while Race tried to keep every book from falling out of his locker.

"How did cross country tryouts go?"

"Great, actually I think I might get to go up on varsity." said Race popping his sucker back in his mouth. Davey collected his books before rushing off to class.

Soon the day was over. Blu had asked Davey to meet her in the auditorium after school. Davey packed up his stuff and walked to the auditorium. He peeked his head into the door, to see Blu standing on the stage with Buttons. Blu saw him standing in the doorway and motioned for him to come in. Davey came into the auditorium and walked into the stage.

"What are we doing here?"

"Buttons got us permission to practice here!" Davey looked around,

"Buttons, how did you get us permission for this?"

"Medda likes me, I make costumes. So you put two and two together and there you go theater access granted." Davey looked at Blu who was excitedly looking over to Davey.

"So let's practice!"

"Wait, right now?"

"No, I thought we could get something to eat. Yes right now!" Davey looked nervously at the floor.

"Ok worry wart, I'll go first. Clear the stage the lady needs some space!" Davey and Buttons walked off the stage and sat down in the auditorium. Blu took a deep breath and began to sing. Davey watched as Blu disappeared off the stage and Winnie Foster appeared. Davey was unable to tear his eyes away from the stage. Soon Blu has sung the final note letting her voice erupt in the auditorium. Davey and Buttons clapped and Blu did a fake bow with some difficulty with her crutches. She climbed down the stairs and plopped in a seat next to Buttons.

"Alright, your turn." Davey grabbed his music and walked up onto the stage. Blu yelled from the seats,

"Put that away! You don't need it!"

"Alright backseat singer." Davey tosses his music on the floor. The music started to play from overhead, he took a breath and began. His heart moved with every note. Every breath perfectly held, he felt Davey melting away. He was replaced by Jesse Tuck. Davey got this joyful feeling about to burst through his chest. Softly then loudly, his voice seemed to dance through the air. He could feel his souls ascending with each passing moment. Soon he was singing the final note letting his voice fill the auditorium. Davey opened his eyes to see Blu staring at him dumbfounded. Davey smiled,

"So what did ya think?"  
"I think that we could have a lead on our hands." an unfamiliar voice said coming from the back of the theater. A woman with a long pink skirt came out of the shadows.

"Ms. Medda!" smiled Blu.

"Who are you?" Ms. Medda pointed to Davey.

"I'm David Jacobs ma'am. Everyone calls me Davey."

"Well Davey, you have quite the voice. Buttons you didn't tell me your friend was so talented."

"I really didn't know Medda." Davey stepped down the stage,

"Have you ever done anything like this before Davey?"

"Not really Ms. Medda, only small stuff. Nothing this big."

"Well Davey, I will see you tomorrow for auditions." Davey nodded, after Medda left the theater Blu yelled from the seats,

"Dang son! I didn't know you could do that!" Davey hopped off the front of the stage,

"Me either."

"Have you ever had voice lessons?" Davey shook his head,

"No, I just like to sing."

"Hmm," muttered Blu confusedly.

"I really think you could have a chance at a lead Davey."

"You really think so?"

"I really do Davey." Davey smiled, his phone buzzed in his pocket. _I'm outside when you are ready._

"Shoot, I gotta go. My mom is here to pick me up."

"I'll see you tomorrow. Keep practicing!"

"I will!" yelled Davey dashing out the auditorium. Davey was so close to the audition, he for the first time in his life felt confident about something. That he could do and be something more than he thought he could.


	4. Ice cream and Conversations

**Blu**

"He's good." she turned around to see Buttons still in his seat. Blu nodded her head.

"Yeah, he really is." Buttons climbed out of his seat,

"My older brother won't be done with cross country practice for a while. Wanna go get ice cream? Dairy Delight is right down the street, I'll buy."

"Sure, I could use ice cream. I'm kinda tired too."

"Wait, are you sure you're alright? I can go get some and bring it back."

"Yeah Buttons, that would be great actually." Blu plopped down in a seat and sighed.

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes." Blu pulled out her phone, _Hey Spot. I was just wondering how football practice is going. Buttons went to get me ice cream, and I'm gonna hang out in the auditorium until you can drive me home. _

_Alright, don't overwork yourself. Now I want ice cream, thanks a lot._

_I won't also, ha ha. _Soon Buttons was back with ice cream and plopped down next to her. He handed her and ice cream,

"Thanks a lot."

"Eh, no problem. Have you thought about homecoming at all?" Blu started to think, she hadn't really thought about homecoming with the start of school.

"Not really, I've been focused on other stuff lately. I don't really want to be asked though. There are too many guys that I'm friends with, and I would rather just go with a ton of friends. That way I can go with everyone."

"Sounds like good logic to me. Personally, I wasn't gonna ask anyone. Not that any girl other than you, I spend to much time making costumes."

"You should really get out of that room, yah know. You are a delight."

"Sure I am! Besides any other girl than you are probably too dramatic anyway." Blu laughed,

"You're probably right! Lucky for you I'm pretty chill."

"The chillest."

"Is that even a word?"

"It is now." Blu laughed again. The two of them sat in the cool air of the theater. Just enjoying each others company, and eating delicious ice cream. Soon Spot showed up to take Blu home, and Buttons brother showed up as well. As Spot and Blu walked out to the car,

"What were you even doing here this afternoon?"

"Buttons got us permission to use the theater to practice for auditions, I was helping Davey."

"Are auditions tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going for the lead?"

"Always!" the two of them made it to the car. Blu sat down in the front seat and tossed her crutches in the backseat. Spot tossed his stuff in the trunk before plopping in the front seat and starting the car.

"The doctor called." Blu looked at the floor expecting to hear bad news.

"He said that you can walk without the crutches tomorrow." Blu looked up in excitement.

"Really!"

"No of course not, of course, I'm serious."

"WOO HOO! I can't wait to walk!" Blu danced in her seat, she couldn't wait to walk again.

"Also you are worse than Race, Mr. Sarcasm." Spot laughed,

"Guess I spend too much time around him."

"Yes, yes you do." Spot and Blu both laughed in the car, about each other and their friends. Spot started the car and the two of them laughed and talked all the way home.


	5. Getting to know you

He was starting to figure out a lot about his new friends. For some reason they called themselves the Newsies, he didn't really get why. Now he was officially a part of the group chat. Everyone had really weird names in the group chat. Like Mush was Mush puppies and Jack was jackalope. Blu had a huge obsession with _Star Wars _and was constantly quoting it. Her favorite Jedi is Obi-Wan Kenobi. She is convinced they the reason most of the Newsies can do crazy flips and stuff is that they are Jedi. Race did anything and everything, he did cross country, track, dance class, voice lessons, basketball, saxophone lessons and the musical so he didn't really have a social life outside of trying to convince people he was the king of New York. Most of the Newsies took dance classes and were all incredibly talented. The only people who didn't take dance classes were Jack, Crutchie, and Blu. Crutchie and Blu for obvious reasons but Jack could not bust a move to save his life. Romeo would try and impress girls by doing pirouettes or backflips for them but then they would see Race, Albert, and Jojo spotting each other while having a pirouette contest and would run off. Crutchie would have to comfort him afterward. One thing all the Newsies could agree on was musicals! Every one of them did the play every year, even though Jack didn't like to admit it he could sing like nobody's business and would get a lead almost every year. Buttons would help by doing costumes but he didn't want to do the actual show, he danced competitively instead.

Crutchie really wished he could actually be on stage, but he couldn't due to his leg, so he student directed with Ms. Medda. Jack had had an abusive foster father for a while, and that's where he met Crutchie. After a while Crutchie was so beat up he couldn't walk, Jack waited a few days until he could walk again and then they ran away. Jack had tried to run away multiple times but he never got away. The time he ran away with Crutchie landed Jack in the hospital, but Crutchie had made it to Medda's house. He told Ms. Medda what had happened and she rushed to the hospital. She fostered both of them for a while and adopted them just before school started. Most of the Newsies were in foster families, but a few of them had families of their own. Buttons had a family of nine, Blu and Spot had both been adopted, and so had Elmer and Mush. Elmer and Mush were the quintessential brothers, it was not out of the ordinary to walk in on them giving each other the death stare because they were arguing over something. Every time they had an argument and both of them were sure they were right they had a staring contest and whoever won was right. They kept track of points, Elmer was winning right now. They both also loved to play pranks, especially on the vice principal Weasel. The secretary Ms. Hannah likes to watch their pranks and really loves the Newsies. She keeps a special jar of suckers for Race when he runs out, and or Albert so he quits stealing Race's.

Race lives in a family with three older boys, so technically he is the baby of their family. His foster mom likes to spoil him, but Race doesn't like that. His foster mom has a weird obsession with socks and gives them as gifts all the time. The first time Davey met Race's foster mom she gave him a pair of socks, they had little clouds on them. Davey really liked those socks, Race's brothers would tease him about his dance classes but then he would do something crazy impressive like seven flips in a row and they would stop. Race could also sorta play the saxophone, so when the newsies were pulling an all-nighter Albert asked him what time it was. So he grabbed the saxophone and played it, which woke Spot up. Spot yelled,

"Who is playing the saxophone at two in the morning!" Race had to fight Spot for the saxophone back. All of the Newsies hang out spot was at the Conlon house. They had a huge basement so everyone was always there and they would watch _Star Wars _movies. When they watched _The Force Awakens _and _The Last Jedi. _Romeo hardcore shipped Rey and Finn, so when Finn and Rose kissed he freaked out and yelled at the TV, he did the same thing when he found out about Reylo. So he hardcore ships everything, his biggest one is Katherine and Jack. Jack has been trying to get Katherine to like him for a while, Romeo keeps trying to convince Jack that she likes him back, Jack doesn't believe him. They all love playing monopoly and half of them are too the death competitive. Crutchie always loses because he gives away extra money, and Jack refuses to play because he says it makes him too much like Pulitzer. Jojo loves Broadway, not only can he dance but he can also sing likes nobody's business. He is constantly humming show tunes and talking about how crazy things he saw on the internet. He wants to be able to sing like Aaron Tveit when he grows up and acts professionally. Blu would like to act professionally too, but with hypokalemic periodic paralysis, she couldn't. She promises to come to see Jojo when he is in lights, both of them have a crazy obsession with _Wicked. _Blu has the habit of using a Galinda voice all the time, and it annoys Jack a lot. Davey heard him venting to Crutchie about it once.

All the teachers know about the Newsies because they fill three long tables at lunch, also a lot of them are responsible for the trouble. Albert is in detention a lot because he has a big mouth, but then all the Newsies strike to get him out. Then the teachers get so annoyed they let Albert out of detention so the Newsies will leave them alone. Albert also has a weird obsession with stealing Race's sucker, then Jojo would steal it from Albert and give it back to Race. Albert's favorite chip is Doritos, both kinds. He measured himself in Cheetos once and he was fifty Cheetos tall. When he told Davey that he was fifty Cheetos tall and he asked him why he measured himself in Cheetos he told Davey because they were out of Doritos. Specs and Tommy Boy are always climbing all over things, their teachers are always yelling at them to get off of lockers or ledges, or shelves. Whenever Tommy Boy got excited he would do the split and just slide back up by his heels onto his feet. All the Newsies love to bowl, and they go almost every Saturday. Whenever somebody gets a strike, they chant strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, oooooooohhhh, STRIKE! Mike and Ike like to confuse everyone and say everything in sync. Blu is the only one who can tell them apart. Kid Blink likes wearing an eyepatch, but Davey doesn't really know why. Jack tells him not to ask, so he doesn't. Sniper got his nickname for an addiction to video games, especially first-person shooter games like Fortnite. Finch was very absent-minded, but when he wasn't he actually was very smart. Smalls and Henry were always playing short jokes on people, and roasting themselves. In the meantime, they have dance competitions, the kind of played HORSE but with dance. Smalls would do a five forty kick and then Henry would do one plus a pirouette. They would continue to do this until one of them lost, the Newsies would sit on their competitions and cheer them on. The craziest thing that happens during school hours is when the teachers throw up a Kahoot game.

Blu was always Han shot first, again with the _Star Wars _obsession, she would always fist pump when she got one right and yell at whoever was winning about how many points she was behind and how she was catching up.

Race was always king of New York, he always won, he was way faster than everyone else.

Albert was always KiNg oF NeW YoRk. Albert spent the entire time trying to distract Race.

Davey was just Davey until Blu changed it for him now he was Dapper Dave. Davey always got second place, he would have gotten first if Albert wasn't trying to distract Race.

. Finch was bird-brained and spent the entire game spacing out, but he would answer a question from time to time when he came back to.

Specs was always where's my shoe. Specs would spend the entire time jumping out of his seat when he got one right and then would miss the next question because he was too busy celebrating.

Jojo was always Fiyero, hence the Wicked obsession, he would try and keep Albert from distracting Race but that never worked.

Smalls was always Henry, he would race Henry to try and get the answer first

Henry was always Smalls. He would race Smalls to try and get the answer first

Elmer was always hello world, he would spend the entire time sitting quietly in the back trying to sneak up on Race and to get first place. Elmer always got third.

Mush was always Mush Puppies, he just took a nap

Jack was always Jackalope, you knew immediately when he got one wrong

Kid Blink was always pirate, he didn't do anything

Tommy Boy was always TB he would do the splits anytime he got one right. He basically played the entire game on the floor

Buttons was always hi, he would look off of Blu's computer for answers

Katherine was just Kit Kat she would try and help others but they didn't listen

Sniper was always kicked out of the game because he would put dumb nicknames and never got to play.

Crutchie was always just Crutchie but he spent so much time cheering everyone else on he never answered any question anyways.

Romeo could never decide on a nickname so he didn't play, he would just narrate from the back of the classroom on the scores. Afterward, the teacher wouldn't put up Kahoot for a while. So the newsies were a crazy bunch, one time Specs did a leapfrog split over his head. He was really surprised when Specs did that, so now he walks on the other side of the hallway from Specs. So as you can tell he had absorbed a lot of information about the Newsies, he asked Blu to quiz him sometimes so he wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings.


	6. Audition Day

**Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've had a little bit of writer's block and a lot of homework**

Today was the day, it was audition day, like really for real audition day, like actually, and on top of that, she was learning to walk on her own again so that's great. Oh boy, here goes nothing. She stepped out of the car onto her own two feet and started to walk, and she felt her knee buckle causing her to stumble. Spot caught her,

"I'm ok, just not used to walking yet." Spot gave her a worried look.

"Alright take two." Blu let go of Spot's hand and walked in through the doors,

"Ok, no biggy. You can do this," she muttered. She walked to her locker next to Mush and Elmer death staring each other.

"Morning boys." neither of them said anything faces getting closer to each other. Then Mush blinked,

"HA HA in your face. Now it is twenty - six to twenty - four."

"I'm gonna catch up,"

"No your not!" Mush was grumbling in anger when the bell rang and they all ran off to class. They were all in the art room, with Jack still focused on his painting. It was like his fifth one of Santa Fe this year, he's still obsessed even though he was adopted. She sat down at a table and saw Crutchie walking in with an armful of books dropping them with every step. She hurriedly hopped out of her seat and collected his books off the floor and took the ones from his arms. She set them down on the table,

"Blu what did I tell you about picking up my books for me?"

"That I should every time." he shot her a look,

"Hey I can fully walk on my own again, I'm gonna help whether you like it or not." he rolled his eyes and smiled sitting down, crutch resting at his side. Smalls flew into the room doing an aerial than three pirouettes, he was followed by Henry who copied the moves then added a split jump. They kept going on like this for a while until the teacher came in, and gave them both detention for excessive dancing and competition. Their art teacher was straight as a line, Smalls and Henry should have known that by now. Blu rolled her eyes, she couldn't strike at least not today because today was audition day. The day continued to English where she pulled out her phone.

Newsies Group Chat 9:30

Blu: who's pumped for audition day?!

Davey: i may throw up

Race: me! I'm gonna do better than Jojo

Jojo: didn't realize it was Opposite Day

Race: say that to my face ya limp noodle

Jojo: we aren't even in the same class

Race: after-school parking lot

Jack: race calm down

Spot: stop blowing up my phone I've got the delanceys

Race: never!

Blu: sheesh guys

Davey: I regret joining this group chat

Blu put away her phone as class began. The day passed by quickly and she walked into the auditorium.

Blu to Buttons 2:40

Blu: u in the auditorium

Buttons: I live here, of course, I'm here

She looked up to see Buttons walking out onto the stage. He did a few dances moves and took a bow. Everyone started filing into the theater, everyone except Mike and Ike.

Twinsies 3:00

Blu: u guys coming?

Ike: the better-looking brother is

Mike: *rolls eyes*

Blu: I'll take that as a yes

She shoved her phone back into her pocket and fiddled with the crystal around her neck. She may or may not wear that because Jyn Erso wears one in Rogue One. Auditions started and rushed by, it seemed like soon they were calling off people's names for callbacks. She kinda spaced out until they called the people's name for Winnie Foster,

"Ivy, Lynn, Mary, Evelyn, and Blu." she almost screamed but Davey quickly put a hand over her mouth.

"Thanks." she mouthed, he nodded and callbacks began. Everything went by in a flash and she couldn't remember any of it, all she knew was that her nerves were rattled after that. Then those words came, the ones that made her shake in fear but squeal in excitement.

"Cast list will be posted tomorrow, thank you to all who auditioned." Everyone started to trickle out of the auditorium, and she went along with them. Now all she had to do was wait.


	7. New Kid(s)

**So Be More Chill just opened on Broadway and I'm like a proud mama bear. I added Jeremy and Micheal into this and you will be seeing lots of other Broadway characters being added from a few personal fav musicals. So basically for this story, this is after Jeremy has been squiped, but like none of the other characters except Jeremy and Micheal really exist. It's not because I don't like the other characters I just wanted some comical relief for my story, and I love their unique friendship so that's why I added them. Also, the Cats group will be referred to as the Jellicles, and they rival the newsies as the biggest and best friend group in the World High, Race has the tendency to challenge them to dance fights (next chapter) and really doesn't like the Jellicles. He tries to be sensitive to Jojo about the Jellicles because he was one before he became a newsie but mostly fails. (I love Cats but I wanted some sort of rival and sorry to anybody who loves a character in Be More Chill that isn't in the story it makes my life easier if I don't have to deal with all those characters and who they are in love with and all that stuff.) **

He woke up in the morning stomach churning with his thoughts whirling. He could hear his three older brothers outside, this year for the play he wanted a specific part, like really bad. He was actually about to throw up but he needed to just stay calm. He just got ready for school, everything still whirling around him trying not to panic.

Race to Blu 7:30

Blu: ITS POSTED!

Race: Srsly?

Blu: YES, GET TO SCHOOL NOW

Race: how r u already at school?

Blu: dragged spot out the door, he's not happy with me

Race: i'll hurry to see u in five

He stuffed his phone into his backpack,

"Bye Mom!"

"Bye Ben, I'll see you after cross country." he ran out the door and hopped onto his bike and started his ride to school. He ditched his bike in front of the school and went sprinting down the halls to see a crowd of people around the cast list. He shoved his way to the front. He scanned the list hoping to see his name, he went up, up, up the list and saw Ben Higgins - The Man in the Yellow Suit. He almost jumped in joy but he needed to play it cool,

Race to Blu 7:36

Race: did u get the part?

Blu: YES, WHAT DID U GET?

Race: don't type in all caps srsly calm down

Blu: I AM INCAPABLE OF THAT RIGHT NOW, WHAT PART DID YOU GET?

Race: golden like the sun, rising in the east

Blu: YAY! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!

Race: me too I'll see you later

Blu: ok

He ran down the hallway to his locker to find Davey with a huge grin on his face.

"What's got you in such a good mood?"

"I'm Jesse Tuck!"

"That's awesome Davey! I'm golden like the sun as the man in the yellow suit."

"Awesome Race, I better hurry. Bell is going to ring soon."

"Dave the bell doesn't ring for like five more minutes," he said kicking opening his locker having a mountain of papers fall out. He kicked the papers aside to get his books.

"Better safe than sorry." He looked up from his pile of papers to see a kid in a red jacket with white headphones around his neck standing in front of him,

"Do you want some help?"

"Sure." the kid bent down and helped Race gather the scattered papers.

"Thanks and your name is…"

"I'm Michael Mell, and your name is…"

"Ben Higgins, but most people call me Race."

"Why do they call you that?"

"Um, I'm in on cross country and track and field."

"Cool, what class do you have?"

"I'm pretty sure I have health, but Jojo keeps track of my schedule."

"Who's Jojo?"

"A friend of mine." Michael looked down at his own schedule,

"Awesome I have health too, could you show me where it is?"

"Sure, follow me." Race led Michael down the hall to the health room where they both sat down. Jojo ran in to see Race,

"Hey, I was just gonna come looking for you."

"I actually remembered today!"

"Proud of you." Jojo sat down next to Race,

"Who's the friend?"

"I'm Michael."

"It's nice to meet you…"

"De la Guerra! Stop talking!" Jojo slouched in his seat at the sound of their health teacher. The day dragged on as the classes passed by until lunch.

"Hey Michael, do you want to come to sit with us at lunch?"

"Sure, but can I invite someone?"

"Of course." Race walked towards the lunch line with Michael following after him with a slushy in hand.

"Jeremy!" Michael rushed towards a boy in a saggy blue sweater,

"Hey Michael, how's the new classes?"

"Eh, people are cool. Teacher didn't like Marley."

"Nobody likes Marley."

"I like Marley." Race turned around to see Smalls on Henry's back running down the hall.

"I see nothing has changed for you people." both of the boys said nothing and continued with their dance competitions.

Newsies group chat: 12: 11

_Racetrack Higgins added Michael Mell_

_Michael Mell added Jeremy Heere_

Race: Hope that's ok guys

Michael: ditto

Jack: that's fine Racer

Race: i didn't really care whether it was fine or not Michael is chill

Blu: who's michael?

Race: new kid

Michael: hi

Smalls: is that the slushy kid you were standing with?

Michael: call me slushy

Michael: actually don't

Jeremy: I'm calling you slushy from now on

Michael: i hate u

Jeremy: I'm Jeremy, Michael's friend

Michael: my only friend

Race: well now u have a ton

Race: u literally have too many now

Blu: r they part of the school newspaper?

Race: no i don't think so

Michael: papers aren't my jam, Marley is

Jeremy: me either

Buttons: so we can't call the group chat newsies anymore

Blu: so what do we call it now?

Elmer: your face

Mush: you are so stupid

Elmer: not as stupid as you

Buttons: Pulitzer's poodles?

Michael:?

Buttons: I'm not good at naming stuff, I'm good at making stuff

Michael: oh

Crutchie: we could call the group chat homosapien, since we are all people

Race: sounds good but I'm still a newsie

_Jack Kelly changed the name to homosapiens_

"Higgins, phone now. Detention."

"Seriously?"

"Yes seriously." Race handed his phone over to Mr. Delancey, having Oscar for Algebra was horrible.

Overall the day had gone just how he wanted, now he had dance class. Dance class with the Jellicles. Great. He got changed and hopped on his bike pedaling towards the studio. He ditched his bike in front of the studio and ran inside, he started to stretch before they started, sitting with his phone in front of him. He had managed to get Hannah to give it to him.

Race to Elmer 3: 04

Elmer: do u have dance?

Race: yeah, I want to switch to your studio

Elmer: why

Race: yours is free of Jellicles

Elmer: true, but I thought u like Mr. Gatelli

Race: i do and he's the only reason I'm staying

Elmer: i would switch to your studio to keep you company but my mom is forcing both me and Mush to go to this one

Race: bye, class is starting

Elmer: peace out

Class had now started and they all danced their pants off. He still didn't like the Jellicles, they were the only other huge friend group at the World High and they rivaled the newsies like nobody's business. He tried to be sensitive to other people in the newsies but, he still like them and the world knew.


	8. another new kid, sorry

So there's are two new kids in the freshman class. They seem mostly chill, at least to him. Race added one to the group chat and he added another friend. He wasn't too worried about them making any trouble, he hurried back to the art room head rushing with ideas of what to create. He got out all the paints and brushes and got to work, he heard his phone buzz and ignored it, it buzzed again, and again, and again. He finally got up to check it,

Jack to Blu 6:45

Blu: Jack

Blu: Jack

Blu: Jack!

Blu: stop ignoring me

Jack: i'm here, what do u want

Blu: what part did u get in the play?

Jack: i'm angus

Blu: awesome, so who's mae?

Jack: Katherine

Blu: oooooooo

Jack: cut it out

Blu; u get to kiss her!

Blu: i'm telling Romeo right now

Jack: plz for the love of God don't

Blu: too late, see ya later

He rolled his eyes, he was never going to hear the end of it from Romeo. He continued to paint and think, he really wanted to ask Katherine to homecoming, but he wasn't exactly sure how. He had googled it a couple of times but just didn't know how yet. He was tempted to ask Blu but she had a big mouth and would blab to everyone so he just needed to be patient. He finally finished his painting trying in vain to wipe it off his face, guess it was just going to stay there now. He walked out of the art room to try and find Crutchie when he ran into a kid sending crisp, white papers flying into the air.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!' Jack exclaimed kneeling down to pick up the papers.

"No… it's fine, really, I don't look where I'm going, I'm always doing stuff like this, I'm so sorry, wow good job Evan on first impressions." this kid talked fast and rambled too, he was talking so fast that Jack couldn't even understand what this kid was saying. He scrambled to pick up the rest of the papers and handed them back to the kid. His blue striped shirt stuck out against the black jacket he was wearing, this kid had good taste. Jack loved the color blue, like a lot, almost as much as Santa Fe.

"I'm Jack Kelly, are you new here?"

"I'm Evan Hansen, yeah I just moved. I'm so sorry about bumping into you. I just never really look where I'm going, just kinda keep walking, so sorry, I'm talking too much, sorry."

"You say sorry a lot."

"Sorry." Jack was kind of perplexed by this kid, he talked fast, and nervously, it was kinda weird.

"So what grade are you in?"

"I'm a junior, but I'm not really sure where anything is so I don't really know how I'm supposed to make it through the day if I don't know where anything is, so I should probably figure that out." He muttered tugging at the strings on his jacket, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"I can help you, I'm a junior too so I could help you if you want."

"That would be really great, thanks so much, I didn't think that you would want to help me…"

"Slow down, you talk too fast."

"Sorry."

"What class do you have first?"

"Art, it's not like I have my schedule memorized or anything…" he tugged nervously at his collar,

"Art room is right here." Jack motioned to the Art room,

"Anything else I could help with?" He shook his head shifting his books in his arms. He nervously walked into the Art room, Jack ran off to go find Crutchie. He walked through the halls and found all the Newsies dancing together.

"Hey Jack!" Crutchie yelled,

"We need some help." He pointed towards the crowd where he saw Newsies and than Jellicles. Dancing, dancing, and dancing.

"Crutchie, what's going on?"

"Dance fight."

"Oh no." Jack pushed his way through the crowd to see Newsies and Jellicles having a dance off. The Newsies were dancing in sync while someone playing music on their phone. The Newsies finished their dance and the Jellicles started to copy it but then one of them slipped and knocked most of the Jellicles over.

"In your faces Jellicles! Newsie forever, second to none!" Race yelled at the top of his lungs,

"Race!" He started to slink away from Jack who had told him multiple times to not start dance fights with the Jellicles, he didn't listen.

"Get over here." Race stood in front of Jack staring at the floor grinning trying to look sad.

"What have I told you about challenging the Jellicles?"

"To not to." Jack leaned close to Race's ear,

"Good work." Race flashed a grin before going to his locker. The crowd began to disperse, and Jack went back to the Art room as the bell rang. He walked into the art room to see Evan sitting at a table by himself not seeming to be working on anything in particular. He was looking at a laptop and he could hear a girl's voice.

"How are you holding up?"

"Good, so far. I'm just upset about having to move and start over with making friends."

"I know, but now you could help a lot more people."

"I don't know."

"Evan you're going to be fine. I know that you are going to help a lot of people here and that this change is going to be good."

"I have to go.

"Bye, I love you."

"Love you too." Evan closed the laptop and looked up to see Jack standing there. He tried to act casual and look like he was looking at some art supplies. Evan seemed to buy it, thank God he was an actor. Everyone started to slowly trickle into the room. Crutchie stopped and stared at Evan and then grabbed Jack's hand dragging him out of the Art room.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"That kid, what is his name?"

"Evan Hansen, why?"

"He's famous!"

"Get out." Crutchie pulled out his phone and showed Jack a post with the same kid sitting in the Art room with a poster that read #youwillbefound.

"What does this mean?"

"He started the Connor Project and has helped a lot of people!" Crutchie was now getting really excited.

"Crutchie, calm down."

"He's so inspirational," Jack cut him off,

"He's just our new classmate, so be cool ok. Also now you could become friends with him."

"Right, play it cool." Crutchie gathered his composure before following Jack into the art room. Jack sat down at his usual spot at the light table which was near his newly finished mural, and his new painting he was working on. Jack watched his friends interact with this new kid, Evan. There was something about this kid that was different, he just needed to relax and learn to go with the flow he was so nervous all the time. Most people just left Jack alone during art class and let him paint it was his way to relax before all the classes. He let the brush fly over the canvas as he painted, the blue and purples melting into a sunset with red and oranges. He looked up from his painting over to the table where his friends were sitting, Crutchie was practically about to explode. Jack made eye contact with Crutchie and shook his head, Crutchie went back to his artwork. He loved his little brother, but sometime he could be a pain in the butt. He put the last finishing touches on his painting and tilted his head to the side examining it, making sure it was just how he wanted it. He walked into the back room and washed off his hands and wiped them off on his pants. He looked at his face in the mirror, paint was still all over his face. He walked back out,

"Jack! Did ya finish your painting?" he nodded,

"Have you finished anything yet?" she nodded her head and held up her notebook that was covered in doodles, Blu liked art but was convinced she wasn't any good, Jack liked her art, it was very Blu. The bell rang and everyone gathered their stuff and walked out the door, he waited for Evan.

"Hey, do you know what class you have next?"

"Psych,"

"Psych room is that way." he pointed down the hall a few doors,

"Just come and find me at lunch and we can hang out."

"Ok," Evan gripped his books tightly and walked towards the Psych room. Jack walked back to his locker and grabbed a few books. He watched as Katherine walked down the hall, she was so nice. He just didn't know how to ask her yet, he walked off towards his next class. Maybe he could ask Blu for help, or Medda he just didn't know how.

**So hope I got Evan right, also I'm working on this new story where I worked all day on character development and I was wondering if you guys would want to see it on FictionPress, since it's my own stuff. Also sorry I haven't posted in like forever, the school had been hectic with class and then I also have drivers ed during homeroom which makes me have to work a lot harder. Also, my primary focus right now will be this new story I'm working on so sorry if you don't see anything from me for a while. **


	9. i like you

**After School...**

He walked into the auditorium to see Ms. Medda standing on the stage while Buttons showed her some costumes. He sat down, rehearsals for the show wouldn't start for a month or so, they always auditioned early. Buttons held up to fabric yellows, and Ms. Medda pointed to the brighter one. He nodded and went backstage to the costuming room, she looked out over the auditorium wistfully, she spotted Jack in the audience,

"How was school today?"

"Pretty good," she walked down from the stage and came and sat down next to him.

"What's wrong?"

"I have a question,"

"I have an answer, probably."

"I want to ask a girl to homecoming, but I don't know how."

"Just ask, don't do something fancy, just ask"

"Ok," he pulled out his phone as she got up to go make some decisions on costumes.

Katherine 3:16

Jack: Hey, I was wondering if you could come to auditorium?

Katherine: I have a newspaper meeting in a couple minutes, but it will be short. I'll come afterward.

Jack: ok.

He put his phone away taking a breath, just ask, just like a band-aid, you just gotta rip it off. He looked around the theatre. There was something truly magical about being in here. He just spaced out letting time pass, after about fifteen minutes the auditorium door clunked closed. He looked up to see Katherine walking in the room holding a stack of papers. She adjusted her glasses,

"Meeting was rough." she said sitting down next to him,

"What happened?"

"No one has any stories to write about, and everyone was arguing."

"Oh no,"

"Enough about me, what did you want to ask me?"

"Ok, just gotta rip it off." he muttered fiddling with his hands,

"Will you go to homecoming with me?" she paused looking at him,

"Of course I will," she said standing up, "took you long enough to getting around to it."

"What?" he asked standing up and following as she walked up onto the stage.

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious you like me. Lucky for you and me, I like you a lot too. Your friends are pretty cool too."

"Huh?" she stopped and turned around in front of the costume room door,

"Ok, boy brain. You like me, right?"

"Right."

"I like you, so I really wanted you to ask me and I'm glad you did." Jack just stood there with a confused look on his face as she walked away. He walked back out onto the stage and sat down, he called Blu.

"DID YOU ASK HER!" she screamed into the phone,

"Yes,"

"What did she say!"

"Yes." he could hear the faint screaming on the other end of the line.

"Calm down, I'm not getting married."

"I'm so proud of you!" she squealed into the phone,

"Well I gotta go," he said,

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye." he hung up the phone, welp today had been, he didn't even know.


	10. North Shore

**This arc is gonna be about Albert coming back into the Church. The Catholic Church... so if you are sensitive to that, I suggest skipping this arc. It will span over several chapters. But I have lots ideas for this story, so hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly. More Blu and Spot for the next arc after this! Also shoutout to AGameofRiddles, Logicality1308, Perigrine54, Phantom Actress, daughterofhadesneekdiangelo, and for following! **

**A few months later…**

Albert walked down the streets, he passed by various different buildings on the way back to his foster parent's house. He stopped in front of the church as the stained glass windows cascaded color onto the sidewalk. A girl walked past the church, she paused.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"You stop here most days, I'm Clare." she said sticking out her hand. He shook it, she had poofy dirty blond hair, black glasses framed her brown eyes.

"Albert,"

"Nice to meet you, I see you and some other boys out and around the city. Where do you guys go to school?"

"World High, what about you?"

"North Shore, but I gotta get home."

"See you here?" Albert called after her,

"Sure red," Clare said running off, he looked back to the church as her footsteps faded. He walked towards his house, as the sun set over the city.

**The next day at North Shore High…**

"KEVIN G! Give me back my books!" Clare yelled chasing after her friend who had robbed her locker. She darted through crowds of people in the halls of North Shore High. She finally caught up to Kevin who was leaning against the wall, "Where are my books?"

"I made a hand off,"

"Tyler. You guys are horrible." she said as she took off,

"Not like you need 'em!" he shouted after her, he was right. She was one of the smartest people in school. For a sophomore at least, she turned to see Tyler distracted by a group of people. Time to get her books back, she walked up tapping him on the shoulder. He turned with her books in his arms.

"Hand 'em over." she said, he passed the books over.

"You're scary when your angry."

"I know, don't raid my locker ever again."

"All in good fun." he said, the bell rang.

"Well we better get to class."

"I don't wanna…"

"It's calculus, it's math. Some mathlete you are…" she said starting to walk away,

"I'm coming," he said catching up, they walked down the halls and entered the calculus room. They sat down next to Kevin, she smacked him on the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You raid my locker one more time and your stream of snacks fourth period ends." The teacher walked in with a new girl.

"This is Cady Heron, she just moved from Kansas."

"Kenya." The girl piped up,

"New kid alert," Marwan whispered dropping into the seat next to her,

"No way," she joked sarcastically. Ms. Norberry glared down the mathletes.

"Let's get started with limits," Cady started to pipe in with every answer,

"She got some mad schwills." Kev said staring at her,

"Schwills will never catch on." Marwon said rolling his eyes,

"Shut up Marwon," Kevin said starting to scribble notes onto his paper, "Schwills is gonna catch on,"

"As soon as fetch catches on." she said, she shook Tyler's shoulder. He popped up from having his head down asleep on his desk.

"What did I miss," he said rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"We're in calculus, it's time to pay attention." she said looking back to the board, he glanced up too.

"Limits? Already learned it." he said placing his head back on his desk.

"Wake up!" she whispered yelled shoving his head. He glared at her before starting to take some notes.

**At lunch…**

"That new girl is smarter than she looks." Marwon said, setting his tray down on the table.

"Five bucks, go ask her to join the mathletes."

"She's over at the plastics table. No way." Marwon said shaking his head.

"She's over at Tyler's girlfriend table you mean." Tyler threw a french fry in her face,

"She is not my girlfriend."

"You've had a crush on her since the second grade."

"Doesn't matter, she likes jocks like Shane Oman."

"True,"

"Check it," Kevin said tossing his tray on the table. "I'm gonna go ask Africa to join the mathletes."

"She could be the first female ever on the team!" Tyler said getting excited,

"So what am I to you?"

"Please, Damian Hubbard is more of a woman than you'll ever be." Marwon stated matter of factly stirring his mashed potatoes.

"Unbelievable."

"Anyone who would like Jason Weebs to go back to his normal voice, raise their hand." Regina announced to the room, every hand shot up. Kev tossed a card on the table, she grabbed it looking it over.

"Kevin G, mathlete, DJ, and an all around cool guy." she read off the card, "What is this?"

"My business card." he said cooly,

"What business?" he snatched it out of her hands,

"I'll be back, I'm gonna go ask Africa."

"Good luck with you know who."

"Regina…" Tyler said, getting a wistful glow in his eyes. Kevin got up and walked over to the plastics table. The three of them watched him get shut down by Regina. He came back to the table adjusting his jacket.

"Kevin G is losing his touch?" she joked,

"Oh shut up," he said grabbing some of Tyler's fries and throwing at her.

"Hey!"

"Africa will come around when Regina isn't around."

"I sure hope so, we need a girl on the team." Marwon said shoving his plate away,

"Marwon, you are about to get a faceful of french fries." Tyler scooted his plate away from her,

"I'm hungry today."

"Oh calm down, I have snacks remember."

"Tell your mom she is the best."

"Oh she already knows." the bell rang,

"Let's hit it home boys." Kev said jumping out of his seat. She cleared her throat,

"And girl." the mathletes got up tossing their trays heading to their next class.

**After Mathletes practice...**

"We're gonna binge the new season of Doctor Who at Kev's house." Tyler said, Marwon looked up from his phone.

"Yeah, are you coming?"

"I can't today actually."

"Really? Come on, we can't watch it until we're all together." Kevin complained,

"I have youth group. You guys know I have that every Monday."

"We forgot." the three said in unison.

"I'm aware." she said glancing down at her phone, "I gotta go, but tomorrow."

"I blame you for my lack of knowledge about the female doctor." Marwon said,

"I know, but tomorrow isn't that far away."

"Enjoy Jesus camp."

"It's not a camp, and you know I always do." she said walking out the door, she hopped into the car and her mom drove her to youth group. She was dropped off in front to see Albert sitting on the stairs,

"Hey red,"

"Hey,"

"I have youth group here, if you wanna come?"

"Sure," he said getting up, they walked inside to see a few teenagers walking around.

"I mean, there are snacks. And all my friends are nerdy guys, and they like to eat. So…"

"I think it's safe to say that all teenagers like to eat."

"Yeah," she smiled, "So, you know, are you Catholic?"

"I was actually raised by nuns for a while."

"Really?"

"I just kinda drifted away after I was moved into the foster home."

"Oh, well you know, no time like the present."

"You go to North Shore, right?"

"Yeah, I'm on the mathlete team. I've played World High a couple times." "Our math team isn't very good." she laughed, the youth minister came in and gathered them in. Albert liked all of this, it had been awhile since he'd been inside a church. Clare seemed really nice, soon it was all over and they were walking out of the church. She handed a piece of paper,

"Here's my phone number, in case you have any youth group questions."

"Thanks, I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah, I'll see you red." she said getting into the car and waving goodbye.

"Who was that?" her mom asked,

"That's Albert,"

"Who's Albert?" she asked curiously,

"Mom, you're acting just like Marwon." she grumbled, slumping into her seat,

"Alright then."

**It is totally (in my opinion) Tyler totally has a crush on Regina. Marwon is basically Gretchen in male form. Clare gives snack to all the mathletes to keep them from dying. Also, as well as things with Albert happening. More will be revealed about Race. Yes I know that Tyler and Race are both played by Ben Cook. For those of you that are fans of my other stories, leave theories in the comments below. Love y'all!**


	11. Hoco

**sorry I died in this section, so yeah, shameless plug if u like star wars, the flash, or marvel go check out Clairvoyance which is the one I'm working on the most bc i'm too invested in the plot now. I also deleted a couple chapters as you may have noticed, bc I needed to fix some stuff. Sorry, they'll go back up. I'm gonna get a Halloween chapter out on Halloween. **

**Homecoming…**

Albert and Jojo were happily dancing on the floor when Race ran over out of breath. The two of them looked at him in curiosity,

"Blu's having an episode, we gotta go!" he yelled above the music, Albert's heart dropped, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening. The trio moved through the crowd, he looked to see Spot carrying Blu out of the gymnasium, her face pale and tired looking her whole body limp in Spot's arm. Jojo shook his arm,

"Albert!" he shouted, "Come on," he knew where he needed to go, everyone would be going to the hospital, he was going to the church. He ran out of the gym, the church wasn't far away, Jojo chased after him, "Albert! We gotta get to the hospital!"

"We gotta get to the church!" he yelled, continuing to run, his legs pumped faster and faster as he ran, tie flapping in the cool night air. He made it up to the steps of the church and pushed open the large doors, he went into the sanctuary, he made the sign of the cross quickly and knelt down. Jojo ran in after him,

"What are you doing?"

"You want to help Blu?" Jojo nodded his head, "Then start praying." he awkwardly knelt down next to Albert, the two boys sat in silence. As their prayers rose towards the heavens.

**The next day…**

All the newsies crowded into the hospital waiting room, Spot and Blu rolled around the corner. They all smiled seeing she was ok, she still looked somewhat tired and weak. She smiled softly,

"Hi guys," she whispered, she was on a lot of heavy medication, it still was scary everytime she had an episode, she rolled over to Davey and held his hand and whispered a few things to him. He nodded, prayers had worked. Blu was going to be ok.

**The next day…**

Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket, debating whether or not to text Katherine,

"Don't be a wuss." he muttered to himself,

Jack to Katherine, 7:28:

Jack: im really sorry about hoco

Jack: i didn't want to leave, but there was an emergency

Katherine: it's ok Jack. I get it, I had fun for what parts we did spend together.

Jack: so we're cool?

Katherine: yeah of course, we should hang out sometime. U owe me.

Jack: ok ok ok, im having pizza later if u wanna come. Race and the fellas r gonna be over tho

Katherine: that's fine see u then


	12. Halloween

**Happy Halloween! It snowed four inches where I live, but whatever. I went as a Jedi, I'm a nerd but idc. **

**Halloween…**

Spot could hear the music blasting from Blu's room, for her it was the favorite time of the year. Halloween, the time when she was allowed to let her inner theatre kid unleash without being on the stage. He heard looked to see a door burst open,

"It's spooky season!" she shouted pumping her fists,

"Yep, I'm taking you to Race's and leaving you there, he's your new brother."

"Cool, but you know you love me," she said yanking the earbuds out, he rolled his eyes as he flopped down the couch.

"Can we watch Revenge of the Sith?" she asked sitting down next to him.

"Fine, but we're watching Return of the Jedi next," he said, she nodded getting comfortable on the couch.

**That night…**

"I have the high ground!" Blu shouted from on top of Jack's shoulder's, "Don't test me." the huge group was gathered in front of the Conlon house getting ready to head out. Blu was by far the smallest in the group, but people didn't mess with her since she has like a lot of brothers. Jack finally set Blu down, she swung her lightsaber pulling her fake beard down from her face. She was Obi-Wan Kenobi this year,

"Come on! We're gonna miss all the good candy." Race exclaimed dragging Jojo and Albert behind him. They had all gone as zombies, Jack had gone as Barry Allen since he didn't have any better ideas, Davey was dressed up as Albert Einstien. That nerd. The group set off with three zombies leading them around the neighborhood, soon they were all cold and hungry. They headed back to the Conlon house to enjoy chili and pumpkin bars.

"So I cut him in half, and I put him… into… a volcano." Blu quoted, she refused to say anything out of character, terrible British accent and all. They all gathered around playing board games and throwing candy at each other. Of course, Race, Jojo, and Albert all had a sugar high and were playing King of the Lollipop, or tackle each other until the sucker is too gross to have possession anymore. Davey liked to call it a good way to get sick. They all decided to play a Star Wars-themed Kahoot because boredom was ensuing. Blu was dominating and yelled "I have the high ground!" every time she got back on top. Spot responded in getting even more competitive with his sister, yelling prequel memes at her to keep her distracted,

"Cool, let's go blow up some spaceships!" he would yell. They all finally got bored and decided to go to the haunted house in town. The newsies split up into four cars, Spot's, Jack's, Katherine's, and Evan's. Jack sped, he sped so fast, his motto is your not in trouble unless your caught. Evan and Katherine went the speed limit. "Those good children of the Lord." as Albert would say, Jack, got there first unloading the many people had taken. Soon Spot, Evan, and Katherine showed up, in that order.

"Katherine drives like an old lady." Race complained jumping out of the car.

"Shut up," Katherine said smacking him in the back of the head,

"Ow," he whined, they all moved inside the house. Blu stuck close to Davey using him as a bodyguard, Davey was probably more scared then she was. Race took it upon himself to hunt Spot through the haunted house and scare him more than the actors. Jack's pretty sure the haunted house thought he worked there and got paid for it. Every time Blu got scared she would hit the actor with a lightsaber. Let's just say she's not allowed at that house anymore. Crutchie and Jack took, of course, stuck together, Crutchie kept scaring Jack by screaming like a little girl every time they turned a corner. Albert and Jojo were just chasing each other around trying to scare each other. So basically the actors in the house didn't get to do their jobs, the newsies just spent the whole time scaring each other. They aren't allowed to go back there anymore, lucky for them there are plenty more haunted houses to get kicked out of.

**Back at the Conlon house...**

He dumped out all of his peanut filled candies into Blu's bag, unfortunately for Spot he had a peanut allergy.

"Did you have fun Blueberry?" he asked as he plopped onto the couch.

"Oh yeah, we should definitely do that again."

"Oh we will, we will."

"You're gonna murder Race aren't you?"

"He deserves it." Spot grumbled she giggled, Halloween was the best.


	13. meeting the family

**I'm reposting this chapter from earlier.**

**The next morning…**

She walked outside her house towards Marwan's car. She opened the door and hopped in,

"Do I have tea for you." He said pulling away from the curb. She pulled out a plastic bag filled with candy,

"Here, my mom is trying to get rid of it." He took the bag,

"Thanks, but at the Halloween party Regina took Aaron back."

"No,"

"She did, and I think Africa had a crush on him."

"Of course she did, have you seen the way she looked at him in calc?"

"Yes, but that's the tea so school is gonna be heated."

"I have a favor to ask,"

"Shoot,"

"Can you drive me to Jacobi's after mathletes practice today instead of my house?"

"Sure, why?"

"I'm meeting all of Albert's friends today."

"Aww, the next step. Meeting the family." He said grinning,

"Shut up," she said pulling out her phone, soon they were at school and everything continued as normal, but the nervousness in the back of her head was a constant. Soon it was mathletes practice and several complex problems later it was over. She got into the car with Marwan,

"You need to keep me posted on how it goes down." He said as they pulled out of the parking lot,

"I will, but it sounds like to me he has a lot of friends. Close friends. Not like us, where it's just us four."

"If Africa could get her head out of the plastic, she could make a valuable addition to the team."

"Yeah, she's smarter than she lets on. She started to fail math ya know."

"Do you know why?"

"To get Aaron to talk to her. Thank goodness I can translate female for you." He laughed sarcastically as they drove down the road towards Jacobi's. They finally pulled up to the shop in lower Manhattan,

"Here we are," she got out of the car and walked around towards the store. She heard Marwan rolling down his window. She turned back to look at him, "If he's horrible to you, Kev and Tyler will beat him up." she nodded smiling,

"Thanks, I appreciate knowing _you _always have my back."

"Your welcome, have fun!" he shouted driving away, she shook her head smiling before walking into Jacobi's. She looked around to see a large group of boys sitting inside the restaurant,

"Clare! You made it!" Albert's voice said as his red hair popped up from behind a booth.

"Hi," she said as he walked over to her,

"So these are all my friends." Heads popped over booths, and everyone turned to look at her. She waved shyly,

"Hey Clare!" everyone shouted joyously,

"Hello," he guided her over to a table with two boys in blue, a blond-haired boy in a yellow sweatshirt, and a boy with dark hair and an orange striped shirt.

"So this is Jack, Evan, Crutchie, and Davey."

"Unique names," she muttered to herself, the first boy in blue who looked to be the oldest stuck out his hand,

"Jack Kelly, nice to meet you."

"Clare King," she said shaking his hand,

"And this is Evan," Jack said, motioning to the dirty blond boy sitting behind him,

"Hi," he said shyly, seeming to shrink behind Jack.

"I'm Crutchie!" the boy in yellow said with a huge smile on his face, "Albert's told me a lot about you!" Albert sheepishly stared at the floor,

"And I guess that leaves me, I'm Davey. Albert tells me you are on the mathletes. You must be pretty smart."

"I guess I take AP calc right now."

"How old are you?"

"15, I have a late birthday."

"Wow," Davey said smiling, they moved onto the next table, where she learned the names Jeremy, Micheal, Mush, and Elmer, and the next and the next until she reached the final table. There was a boy with curly blond hair and a sucker in his mouth, a boy with brown hair, and a tan-skinned boy with had his long black hair hanging in front of his eyes, he seemed to be asleep.

"This is Race, Jojo, and Romeo." The boy with the sucker turned to look at her, her eyes went wide as the face of her friend Tyler looked at her.

"I'm Race, you must be King." he said smiling, "You ok?"

"Uh, yeah, you just look like my friend Tyler."

"What's his last name?" Race asked quickly,

"Kimmel,"

"Oh," he said disappointedly, the boy with brown hair butted in,

"Hi! I'm Jojo!" he said excitedly,

"Nice to meet you," she said smiling,

"You two are the ones he talks most about."

"We are basically his brothers," Jojo said leaping over Race and tackling Albert in a hug. Her phone buzzed, she pulled it out to see Marown's name across the top,

"Speaking of my friends…" she said sliding to answer the facetime call, "hey Marw-"

"Yo, what's poppin'!" Kevin shouted,

"Hey Kevin," she turned the camera, "Say hello!"

"What's up!"

"This is my friend Kevin G,"

"KEVIN! Give the phone back!" she heard Marwan shout, his face popped into the frame, "Kev stole the phone,"

"I see that, say hi."

"Hello Clare's boyfriend," Marwan said looking over at Albert, his face went beet red,

"Marwan, shut up." she turned the camera, "What are you guys doing?"

"We're rewatching the most recent episode of the Flash, the new one comes out tomorrow."

"Where's Tyler?"

"He's asleep,"

"He always is, I gotta go."

"Bye!" Kevin and Marwan shouted before hanging,

"Sorry about that," Albert looked up,

"No, it's fine. You and your friends seem as inseparable as me and my friends."

"I just don't have this many, you see North Shore is… different."

"I guess so," she got to know the rest of his friends a little bit better that night, soon she was driving back into upper Manhattan after a busy night. Ready to ace her English test in the morning, she looked out the car window as they drove back into upper Manhattan, soon they had passed North Shore, and then they made it to their house. She flopped onto her bed and checked her phone, she had put it on do not disturb so she could soak in everything she had learned about Albert's friends. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket as she rolled over onto her stomach, 27 new messages from Mathletes. Her phone read, mostly just Marwan and Kevin spamming her, she set it down at got ready for bed. Life was always gonna be a bit tough at North Shore, it felt nice to escape for a night where she didn't have to worry about anything that happened there. It was a garbage school, but she had good friends, and it was the only place that was in the area. But life always had to move on,


	14. Christmas

**Here ya go, it's short but it's fun. I don't have a lot of ideas of what to do with this story so please please please PLEASE leave some ideas you have in the review section. THANK YOU! And Merry Christmas! **

**Christmas…**

Race shimmied shaking the bells on his Christmas cat sweater,

"Cut that out or I'm gonna rip that sweater in half," Spot growled, Race shimmied defiantly, he pulled his sucker out of his mouth.

"I'm gonna start calling you Scrooge. Lighten up, it's Christmas!" he said,

"Race is right, lighten up grouch pants."

"I will once Race stops wiggling," he growled, Race finally complied holding still. Jack burst into the classroom, Evan jumped a little,

"Geez Jack, don't do that," Evan muttered, turning back to his fidget cube.

"Sorry Evan, but guess who gets to do the tree lighting!" he shouted excitedly,

"You." Davey said matter of factly, returning to his book."

"Katherine convinced Pulitzer to let me do it this year. Best girlfriend ever!" Jack said proudly thinking about Katherine. She and Jack started dating shortly homecoming, their officially the cutest couple in World High.

"Very exciting Jack," Blu said,

"Well none of you seem excited," Jack grumbled, plopping into a chair.

"We're extremely excited," Crutchie said, happily.

"Someone finally appreciates me," Jack said, smiling at Crutchie.

**A few hours later…**

The entire world gathered around the tree, Albert held up his phone so Clare could see on facetime. Jack stood next to Katherine and Pulitzer like a giddy child.

"And now Mr. Kelly will do the tree lighting." Mr. Pulizter said handing the microphone.

"Thank you, Mr. Pulitzer." Jack said politely, "Welcome to the diggity dopest tree lighting in the history of World High." Pulitzer rolled his eyes, Jack plugging in the tree, it lighting up in front of everyone. The crowd cheered,

"YES!" Race cheered jingling his sweater violently, Spot chased Race around the auditorium, ready to burn the cat sweater. Jack was right, it was the diggity dopest tree lightning in the history of the World High.

**The cat sweater is based off of someone I know who has been wearing a Christmas cat sweater with bells since we were in junior high. **


	15. State Final Math Championship

**A few days later…**

Albert pulled out his phone, taking a break from the others. He facetimed Clare, she picked up leaving her camera off,

"Hey! How are you?" he asked, wondering why her camera was off.

"I'm fine, how about you?" her voice sounded different, for some reason.

"I'm good, I'm with the others right now. I was calling to ask if you wanted to come hang out? Jack is willing to come to get you."

"Uh, I don't think that I want to." she said, "I'm really tired, and I have a test tomorrow."

"Oh come on, you're one of the smartest people I know, you'll ace it. Come on, it'll be fun." he urged,

"I really don't feel like it Albert, I'm coming down with something and I wouldn't want to get you sick," she argued,

"Ok, then I'll come to you. Bye, see you in a few." he hung up before she could argue. He went back down to the basement, pulling Jack aside, "Somethings wrong with Clare, I want to go check on her."

"Alright Al, let's go," Jack said, pulling his keys out of his pocket. The two got into the car. Albert watched the buildings go by as they drove towards upper Manhatten to Clare's house. Jack pulled up outside,

"I'll wait in here," he said, Albert got out walking up to the door. He knocked, Clare opened the door.

"Hey," he noticed the bruise on her chin.

"What happened?" he asked worriedly,

"Come on, I'll explain," she said, walking up some stairs, Albert followed. She opened her bedroom door, pictures hung around the room, with a blue bed in the middle, with a few shirts and pants littered across the floor.

"So what exactly happened to your face?" he asked, stepping tentatively outside.

"Girls are crazy, I got beat up by a senior named Grace. She thought I wrote a mean comment about her in the 'burn book'."

"What's a burn book?"

"It's a book someone in the school wrote mean things about in the book, someone put papers of it all over the school. Then Mr. Duval found the book and held us all to talk about it. After a somewhat of a therapy session, no one fessed up. Also, Regina got hit by a bus." Albert paused in confusion,

"Uh, you, got beat up by a senior because of a mean comment, then you had therapy… and then Regina… got hit by a bus."

"Yeah, pretty much, and that's the story of my face," she said,

"Are you ok?"

"Not really, someone wrote some really mean things about me, and my friends in/ there. I'm worried about my teacher, Miss Norberry. Someone put in there she's a drug pusher and she could be fired unless someone fesses up."

"I'm really sorry Clare," he said,

"Regina was dead for a whole fifteen seconds. It was crazy, some people say Cady pushed her. I don't think so, even though she has gotten more and more plastic, I don't think Cady would push Regina in front of a bus." she said,

"I'm so glad I don't go to North Shore," Albert mumbled to himself,

"Believe me you don't, on second thought, I want to come with you to see everybody."

"Racer's gonna get jealous of your bruise." he joked as they walked out to the car.

"I'm counting on it."

**A few months later… **

The four mathletes raced down the hallway towards the calculus room, where Cady and Ms. Norberry were waiting.

"Yo yo mathletes!" Kevin cheered, "State math championship!" Cady looked around shocked and confused at the excited mathletes jumping around and high fiving, and the girl now on Tyler's back.

"First female eva on the team!" Kev shouted, throwing a mathlete shirt to Cady,

"I hate you, Kevin," Clare grumbled,

"A boxed lunch will be provided!"

"What!" all the mathletes chorused,

"Ms. Norberry, what's going on?" Cady asked very confusedly,

"You got mad squillz Africa," Cady interrupted,

"What are squillz?" she asked,

"It's a fresh new way of saying skills," Kevin said,

"Stop trying to make squillz happen, it's never going to happen!" Marwan shouted,

"Marwan get off my back!" Kevin shouted he cleared his throat, "Welcome to the team Africa."

"Alright Mathletes, let's rollout." Ms. Norberry said, Clare jumped off Tyler's back as they all made a mad dash for the bus, she was more excited for this championship because Albert and all of the newsies were coming.

"Ok team, we gotta win for the Lions, but especially because Clare's boyfriend and company are coming. We gotta show World High who's boss," Marwan said putting his hand in the middle,

"And Mary Mount," Kevin said,

"That's never going away," Clare mumbled putting her hand in, Tyler, Kevin, and Ms. Norberry joined in, "You too Africa," Cady tentatively put her hand in as well.

"GO MATHLETES!" they all cheered, soon everyone had settled in, the boys still being a tad bit crazy, Clare sat down across from Cady who was invested in a book.

"Hey," she said,

"Oh, hi," she said looking up from her book,

"So, I always wanted to ask you about Kenya. I heard it's beautiful." Clare said,

"It is, it's much more quiet than here. My mom and I used to play this game where we would close our eyes and name all the birds we could hear. We don't really do that anymore, here no one really seems awake, walking on pavement all the time. There were also no lights at night, so all you could see were the stars. I would spend a lot of time staring at them when I was younger." she said, getting a wistful gaze.

"Every year I go on this retreat outside of the city, in the country. On one night we'll have a bonfire, I'll go out on my own and stare up at the stars."

"Marwan, I swear!" Kevin shouted, popping up over his seat.

"Kevin!" Ms. Norberry reprimanded, "Sit down."

"Whatever you say teach," he said, plopping back down in his seat.

"Your friends seem… interesting," she said, listening to the boys yelling and cheering.

"Yeah, I've known them since second grade. They've stuck with me through thick and thin, and plus, they seem to like you and most people at North Shore don't really test the waters with other people."

"All my friends in Kenya were animals, and the people that were there couldn't speak English, I was excited to get socialized here in the big city. You're friends kinda behave like baboons." she said, Clare gave her a confused look, "Not like that, Kevin seems to be the alpha, leading you guys and protecting his troop. Then all of you are in his troop."

"Oh, I think they taught us that in Bio… but I don't think I was paying attention."

"My classes back in Kenya were way more interesting, not gonna lie," Cady said, a smile creeping over her face.

"I can believe it," the bus pulled up into the neutral zone for Mary Mount and North Shore.

"Lions, let's go." Ms. Norberry said, gathering her stuff.

"WHO'S READY!" Kevin shouted,

"WE ARE!" everyone else yelled back,

"WE'RE GONNA POUND MARYMOUNT INTO THE GROUND!" Kevin roared,

"That's it, Kevin, get it all out now." Ms. Norberry mumbled getting off the bus with the rowdy Mathletes following after her.

"See, protects troop," Cady said, putting her book into her bag. Soon Ms. Norberry had them checked in and they made their way to the arena of math. The two sides already prepared, Clare glanced over from her spot at the table to see Albert and all the newsies were gathered in the viewing room, she waved, Jack pressed a paper up against the glass.

'You got this king!' It read she smiled, Marwan gave a wave to Albert, nudging Clare, she pulled out her phone quickly before everything was supposed to start up.

Clare to Albert 10:30:

Clare: where's Race?

Albert: he's gonna be a little late, he had a basketball game

Clare: cool, I want Tyler to meet him so I can prove how much they look alike

Albert glanced up from his phone looking at Tyler, he and Race almost looked like twins,

Albert: yeah, they really do

Ms. Norberry walked over,

"Mathletes, we've got this, we've been training-"

"And we're gonna stomp Mary Mount into the ground," Kevin growled,

"Ok then, now we all have to be quiet. Time to take a w here." Ms. Norberry joked, Marwan put a hand on Ms. Norberry's,

"Don't try and be trendy, it's not a good look for you," he said kindly, Ms. Norberry rolled her eyes before walking away.

"Welcome to ICMT State Final Math Championship sponsored by nobody. North Shore with their captain, Kevin Gnapoor, and the Mary Mount captain, Nickolas Campbell. The questions will appear on the screen above me, you will have thirty seconds to answer each question. This is your one reminder for talking, and the audience must remain quiet to let the contestants and myself remain focused. If the teams receive and outside help, the question will be discarded and ten points will be deducted from the team's total score. Please solve for,"

"X equals 2"

"The rate is two pie"

"X is greater than the value of y,"

"Both polynomials are second so the asymptote is that y equals 3."

"Function x equals mx+c,"

"The derivative of f and argument z,"

"Negative 4"

"Negative 2,"

"The slope is zero,"

"The answer is true,"

"1.7 inflection,"

"29!"

"Four is the slope of the tangent line." the teams were all tied up, and were at a timeout,

"Alright Mathletes huddle up," Aaron Samuels came out holdings water for everyone. "This question is the last chance we have to win, if you get chosen for the sudden death, we're counting on you." Ms. Norberry, "Let's stomp Mary Mount into the ground." she said, fist-bumping Kevin.

"That's right Ms. Norberry!" he said excitedly, all the mathletes went back to their spots. Clare took a deep breath,

"For all the marbles," she said,

"Whatever marbles we have left," Marwan added,

"With both teams tied up, we move into a sudden death round where each team may choose their opponent, Mary Mount who do you select?"

"We pick the girl with all the makeup," he said,

"We pick the girl too." Kevin snapped back, both Cady and the girl from Mary Mount moved up to the podium." the problem appeared on the screen,

"Please find the limit." everyone started to solve the problem, as soon as she finished she stared at Cady who was seeming to freeze up.

"Come on Africa," she whispered, saying a silent prayer. A buzzer went off, Mary Mount's red filling the room.

"The limit is negative one." the girl said, trying to rub it in Cady's face. The room held its breath.

"That's incorrect, thirty more seconds North Shore." the moderator said,

"The limit does not exist," Cady murmured to herself,

"Please repeat North Shore,"

"The limit does not exist!" Cady shouted,

"Our new state champions! The North Shore Mathletes!" the room exploded,

"OH YEAH! YOU LIKE THAT MARY MOUNT!" Kevin screamed, excitedly jumping in their faces, the team left the room, leaving the cheering mathletes alone. Aaron came out holding letterman jackets, he tossed one to each of the players, Clare spun around, showing off her brand new jacket. The Newsies were all finally let into the room,

"King!" Race excitedly ran into the room, with Albert not far behind.

"Way to take the win," Albert said, excitedly hugging her. Race paused spotting Tyler,

"Tyler?" he asked,

"Ben?" he asked, staring back at Race,

"Hang on, you two know each other?" Clare asked, the two ran embracing each other,

"I thought I'd never see you again."

"Explanation please," Marwan said, both of the boys were too busy hugging to answer. As soon as they both finished, gathering themselves,

"My last name was Higgins until I was adopted," Tyler said, putting an arm around Race.

"We were separated in the foster system when we were really little, this is my little brother Ben," Tyler said,

"Whoa, you have a little brother?" Clare asked,

"We really thought we would never see each other again after we got separated. Which is why I got excited when you said you had a friend named Tyler who looked like me," Race said, hugging his brother again.

"As much as I hate to break up this happy reunion, Mathletes we have a Spring Fling to attend to."

"I'm banned though," Cady said disappointedly,

"Everyone is scared of me now, I can get you in." Ms. Norberry said, "You know what, all of you can come. After this year, Mr. Duval won't care. To North Shore, let's go!" the Mathletes piled into the bus along with a group of the newsies, the other half going with the people they carpooled with.

"That was incredible King, I didn't even know what they were talking about," Jojo said, climbing over Race and Tyler.

"Well, math makes my life make sense. Not many people share my affinity for it." Clare said,

"What's an affinity?" Les asked, poking his head over Davey's shoulder.

"It's a love of something goober," he said, ruffling his little brother's hair.

"How did you guys all end up meeting?" Ms. Norberry asked the new group of kids. Clare slapped a hand over Marwan's mouth,

"Albert and I met outside of my church, and then I met the rest of them," she said quickly, Marwan finally prying her hand off of his mouth.

"And her boyfriend," he whispered jokingly, she punched him in the arm. Soon they pulled up in front of North Shore,

"Alright everyone, into the school." all the Newsies and Mathletes rushed into the school and started to party hard to the music that was playing. Gretchen came over admiring Clare's letterman jacket with Regina and Karen in toe.

"That jacket is so fetch," she said,

"Thanks… I guess."

"Congrats state champs," Regina said, walking off.

"Was Regina George actually nice to me?" she asked Tyler,

"I'm not sure, take and it run." he joked grabbing her hand and rushing over to their group of friends, the music cut out.

"Can all the nominees for King and Queen join me on the stage," Mr. Duval said, "To me, you're all winners, but I could not be happier this school year is ending. Here we go, the winner of the Spring Fling King is Shane Oman."

"Whoo!" Shane fist-pumped,

"Who saw that coming?" Marwan mumbled,

"And Spring Fling queen is Cady Heron." she looked around confused for a minute before walking on stage. Mr. Duval put the crown on her head and stepped off to the side, Cady stepped in front of the microphone.

"Um… I think I'm up here because most of you think I pushed someone in front of a bus, and that's bad."

"It's not required of you to make a speech." Mr. Duval said,

"I'm almost done I promise," she said, "To all the people who got hurt by the burn book, I'm really sorry. I've never really been to one of these things before,"

"Most people just take the crown and leave," Mr. Duval interrupted,

"I was just thinking about how many people wanted this," she said, taking the crown off of her head. "Under these lights, it sparkles like it's made of diamonds, but really it's just plastic. It's cheap, fake, and easy to break." she snapped the crown in half. "I want to share it with all of you because all of you sparkle, like the stars in Kenya. You make North Shore shine, so here, take it." she tossed pieces out to different girls in the crowd. Clare caught hers, "You're all stars."

"Look I'm a queen," she said, holding up her fragment of the crown,

"You sure are King," Albert said,


	16. Electric Potato

**A shorty but a goody, hopefully, you'll be seeing more of these since I'm on spring break now. **

"So what exactly are you doing?" Katherine asked staring at the potatoes spread out on the floor on a towel. Race scrubbed another potato free of dirt,

"I'm making Mama Davey proud," he replied,

"How, because I'm scared of all the electrical equipment next to you," she said noting the toolbox next to Race.

"I'm hungry and I have to finish my science project. I'm going to electrify these potatoes."

"Where is your parental supervision?" Katherine asked, glancing back down at her computer where her unfinished article lay.

"I was hoping you could be that, or Tyler and Jack are gonna be here soon." He said starting to stab a potato with a probe, Katherine finally got up grabbing the potato out of the fourteen-year-olds hands.

"Ok, time to start explaining before I get in trouble too," she said, pulling the probe from the potato.

"I'm going to shock the potatoes to cook them," he said, patting the large battery next to him. Katherine pulled out safety goggles and work gloves out of the toolbox,

"Put these on, I'll help you." Race obeyed, Katherine helped him stab the rest of the potatoes with electric probes and connect them back to the battery. She pulled the battery away from the potatoes, Race scooting with her. "You do the honors." he excitedly hovered his hand over the button, he slammed it down, a small flash filled the room, and it went back down, a whole bunch of steamy potatoes now filling the room.

"It worked!" Race cheered, prodding a potato with his finger, it squishing slightly, Katherine sighed,

"I'm glad that we did not burn the house down," she said,

"I think my mom is glad too." Race said, cracking a big grin,

"Come and help me prepare these before everyone else gets here," she said, starting to pull probes from the vegetables.


End file.
